Vatican will nix your time in purgatory if you follow Pope on Twitter

The Vatican announced that Catholics wipe out their entire expected time in purgatory by following the Pope on Twitter, among other “social media” ways of expunging their sinful souls.

According to the Italian paper, Corriere della Sera, in order for Catholics to earn years off of their time in purgatory, they must either attend the upcoming Rio World Youth Day in person, or follow the event on Twitter or any other method online.

In the Corriere’s English edition they note that buried in the decree is the following fine print:

The faithful who are legitimately impeded [from attending the event – Ed.] can obtain the plenary indulgence if […] they follow these same rites and pious exercises […] always with appropriate devotion, by the new means of social communication”.

The way it works is apparently the Catholics have a thing called a “temporal punishment.” It’s a punishment for a sin that will need to happen either in this world or in purgatory.

The Pope announced a “plenary indulgence” for those who attend Rio World Youth Day either in person or online. The plenary indulgence basically wipes clean all of your required temporal punishment. The Corriere explains some more:

On 3 June, the pontiff announced the news at an audience with the major penitentiary, Cardinal Manuel Monteiro de Castro, that anyone attending the Rio World Youth Day would obtain a plenary indulgence, as was the case for the Jubilee in 2000. This means total remission of sins committed and full relief from the obligation of penitence. On 24 June, three weeks after the Pope’s meeting with Cardinal Monteiro de Castro, the apostolic penitentiary issued a decree confirming this exceptional gift to believers.

So, in essence, if you follow the Pope on Twitter during the World Youth Day, from July 22 to July 29, and share some of his tweets and Facebook postings, he’ll wipe out the years in purgatory you’ve already earned.

John AravosisFollow me on Twitter: @aravosis | @americablog | @americabloggay | Facebook | Instagram | Google+ | LinkedIn. John Aravosis is the Executive Editor of AMERICAblog, which he founded in 2004. He has a joint law degree (JD) and masters in Foreign Service from Georgetown; and has worked in the US Senate, World Bank, Children's Defense Fund, the United Nations Development Programme, and as a stringer for the Economist. He is a frequent TV pundit, having appeared on the O'Reilly Factor, Hardball, World News Tonight, Nightline, AM Joy & Reliable Sources, among others. John lives in Washington, DC. John's article archive.